Help rename the former Queue de Cheval restaurant

    I was enjoying a heavenly steak and mouthwatering lamb chops with the owner of the former Queue de Cheval, the delightful James Essaris, when he asked me to suggest a new name for the place.
   I was caught a bit flat-footed as I saw a flow of overlooked Montreal local figures pass through my head - I thought of some early French settlers, or a subtle reference to Al Palmer, who immortalized that strip of Dorch (le Paumier or something?)
   So at the moment I copped out and didn't suggest a single name for the place.
   They are currently using their address as the name, the 1221 Steakhouse, as you can see on the inset image on the medallion on the delicious chocolate cake.
   They have ditched their longstanding trademark moniker because the other partner recently split and he may or may not want to use the name at some other place that he may or may not eventually open.
   I told Essaris that the 1221 name reminds me of my rickety old apartment around the corner at 1221 Drummond. He wouldn't want people going there by accident.
  Essaris, now 81, came to Canada from war-torn Greece in the early 50s alone and penniless.
  He got work at a restaurant in LaSalle and persuaded the owner to serve barbecued chicken similar to that of Chalet BBQ. Business increased tenfold and Essaris got enough of a cut of those profits to purchase his own small restaurant.
   That place also thrived, so he quickly sold it for about a $6,000 profit, which was quite a lot as you could practically buy a house for about $1,000 back then.
   Essaris then took his profits and bought up a series of parking lots around downtown, many of which he still owns 56 years later.
   He is now transforming some of those parking lots into condos, a fact I mentioned in a larger article about disappearing parking lots in the city that is to appear in the Gazette Saturday.
   So please go out and buy a paper copy of the Gazette tomorrow.